05 October 2016

Researchers at Lund University in Sweden have reconstructed the House of Caecilius Iucundus in Pompeii, destroyed by the eruption of Vesuvius in AD79. The press release reports:

After the catastrophic earthquake in Italy in 1980, the Pompeii city curator invited the international research community to help document the ruin city, before the state of the finds from the volcano eruption in AD 79 would deteriorate even further. The Swedish Pompeii Project was therefore started at the Swedish Institute in Rome in 2000. The researcher in charge of the rescue operation was Anne-Marie Leander Touati, at the time director of the institute in Rome, now Professor of Classical Archaeology and Ancient History at Lund University.

Since 2010, the research has been managed by the Department of Archaeology and Ancient History in Lund. The project now also includes a new branch of advanced digital archaeology, with 3D models demonstrating the completed photo documentation. The city district was scanned during the field work in 2011–2012 and the first 3D models of the ruin city have now been completed. The models show what life was like for the people of Pompeii before the volcano eruption of Mount Vesuvius. The researchers have even managed to complete a detailed reconstruction of a large house, belonging to the wealthy man Caecilius Iucundus.

“By combining new technology with more traditional methods, we can describe Pompeii in greater detail and more accurately than was previously possible”, says Nicoló Dell´Unto, digital archaeologist at Lund University.

Among other things, the researchers have uncovered floor surfaces from AD 79, performed detailed studies of the building development through history, cleaned and documented three large wealthy estates, a tavern, a laundry, a bakery and several gardens. In one garden, they discovered that some of the taps to a stunning fountain were on at the time of eruption – the water was still gushing when the rain of ash and pumice fell over Pompeii.

31 August 2016

I tend not to mix up my journalism and archaeology that often, but thought there might be some interest in a recent investigation into a healthcare company based in Hong Kong called Mingyuan Medicare and a possible US$63 million fraud:

It reads like a story from Sherlock Holmes or a locked room mystery. But the case of Mingyuan Medicare and the missing Rmb420 million (US$62.9 million) involves a boardroom coup, fake bank accounts, and a company that could well be brought low by circumstances beyond its control. It certainly leaves as many questions as it does answers.

You can read the full story of Mingyuan Medicare and the missing Rmb420 million here.

24 August 2016

A new report on the annex at the Roman fort at Camelon on the Antonine Wall from GUARD has turned up numerous discoveries, including a headline-grabbing oven:

Archaeologists say Roman socketed bolt-heads, an ox-goad, hobnails and a possible oven, discovered at a former fort annexe where years of excavations have repeatedly revealed remains from the period, could help shed light on life in central Scotland as far back as the Iron Age.

09 August 2016

A review in Current Archaeology of David Breeze's new book on Bearsden Roman Fort. It gets the thumbs up from Matthew Symonds:

One of the great strengths of this volume is the way that it captures the intimate details of day-to-day life. You are what you eat, they say, and the discovery of the effluent from the bathhouse latrine (see the reconstruction illustration above left) provided a valuable opportunity to investigate the military diet. This sewage was flushed into the fort ditch, where it settled below the waterline. It is suggested that this liquid lens might have helped to dampen the odour, but your reviewer has visited towns where waste is still discharged into waterlogged ditches, and there at least the stench remained all too potent. The questionable hygiene regime implied by this flushing of raw sewage into the fort ditches seems to be confirmed by the presence of whipworm and roundworm, revealing that at least some of the garrison had themselves been colonised.

You can read the review here. Some of my photographs of the bath house can be seen here.

06 August 2016

A distinctly space-filling piece in the Scotsman today on why the Romans didn't conquer Scotland. It reads like a sub-par sixth form essay. It is worth having a look at, primarily for the language of the headline. The use of "couldn't" rather than "didn't" smacks of modern politic sentiment.

The decision to pull resources from Scotland may well have been made on a “last in, first out” basis but other reasons have been long debated.

There is no mention of the Severan invasions, or indeed of the fourth century campaigns. A great deal of work has been done on that subject in the past few years. In the journalist's favour, she did at least put in a call to David Breeze.

The full story can be read here, but much better to read David Breeze's "Why did the Romans fail to conquer Scotland?" Proc Soc Antiq Scot 118 (1988), pp3-22.

The decision to pull resources from Scotland may well have been made on a “last in, first out” basis but other reasons have been long debated.

23 July 2016

Exciting news that thanks to a grant from Creative Europe, a 3D app is going to be developed for the Antonine Wall.

“Over the last twelve months we have made great strides in digitally interpreting the Antonine Wall. Thanks to this significant commitment from Creative Europe, as well as Historic Environment Scotland’s own substantial investment, we are now able to build on that work and expand our use of innovative technologies to engage the widest audience possible. The project is a great model of international partnership working and ultimately we will share the technology with other countries free of charge, which should benefit the entire sector,” said Patricia Weeks, Antonine Wall World Heritage Site co-ordinator for Historic Environment Scotland.

The full press release is here, while newspaper coverage is here and here. The demo looks good and will make interpretation of the sites considerably easier.

02 July 2016

Sarah Bond and I had a disgraceful amount of fun last week last week working on a piece for Forbes on this season's discoveries at Kalkriese (see my previous posts on these here and here). The article came out yesterday:

The most significant discovery by the archaeology team from Kalkriese and scientists from the University of Osnabrück in the museum park is eight gold coins, which more than doubles the number of gold coins found at the site. Called aurei, and featuring images of Augustus’ grandsons Gaius and Lucius, they were minted within a span of 2 BCE to 5 CE – in other words, they all date to a time before the battle occurred.

28 June 2016

This is turning into a particularly exciting season at Kalkriese. I can't remember when there was last such a flow of new discoveries from the Battle of Teutoburg Forest, the battle in AD9 that saw three Roman legions wiped out by German forces commanded by Arminius.

The latest news is the discovery of eight Roman gold coins. This more than doubles the total number of gold coins found at the site to date. There is some details of the money, minted around the turn of the millennium and in Lyon, in the Oznabrüker Zeitung;

20 June 2016

A belated post, but you must read Sarah Bond's fantastic piece for Forbes on barbarian soldiers in the Roman Empire and Game of Thrones:

Just as Jon Snow promised land to the Wildlings, many Goths were settled in arable areas of Thrace (modern Bulgaria) and then drafted into the Roman army in order to solve Rome’s worsening recruiting problems. As the Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus notes, the Roman emperor Valens was initially praised for bringing in such a flood of recruits “from the ends of the earth” that could take the pressure to supply troops to the military levy off of other Romans in the provinces. Sure, they had allowed barbarians into the gates, but these barbarians could take the onus of military service off of them!